Loved
by epicfrenchfry
Summary: It's Prussia's birthday, but instead of celebrating, he's holded himself up in his room, depressed... At least, until he gets a call from Germany that will forever change his perspective on life. HETALIA BELONGS TO HIDEKAZ HIMARUYA, NOT ME!


**HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRUSSIA! In honor of your birthday, I am posting this angsty one-shot :)**

* * *

January 18th, 2014

Does life even mean anything, when the very thing you live for was stolen away from you? When the years pass meaninglessly, is a birthday still something to celebrate? Or has it, like everything else, become something to look bitterly at?

For Prussia, every day was just another day to mourn the loss of his country. He only felt worse on the day of his creation... His pride and joy, the very thing he loved most, but the very thing that destroyed him.

It was gone now.

He'd long since lost track of how old he was. What was the point of counting? All he knew is that he was very old, maybe even ageless, trapped in the seeming never-aging body of a 23-year-old.

When he was young, a birthday was something to be proud of. He would brag about it endlessly, another year of survival added to his swiftly growing list. Now, that was exactly the problem. He wasn't truly _living _anymore, only surviving. Existing without a purpose.

Once he'd carelessly mentioned this to his brother. Germany had looked at him in a mixture of surprise and anger.

"Bruder! How can you say that? You have so much left to live for!" He'd scolded.

"My country was dissolved over 60 years ago, Ludwig. I should have died by now... so why haven't I?" Prussia had pointed out sullenly.

"Because we _care _about you, Gilbert. Believe it or not, you have friends that love you." Germany said firmly, gripping his shoulders. Prussia waited for the ultimate reassurance, for his little brother to say that not only did he have friends, but he had him. He waited for Germany to say that _he _loved him, but he never did. He simply gave him a soft glare and exited the room.

Prussia now sat on the floor of his bedroom, Aster sitting contentedly in front of him. He leaned his forehead against the dog's, running his fingers through the Retriever's silky golden fur. "Oh, Aster..." He whispered. "What am I going to do? I followed Germany's advice and invited everyone to a party... but nobody's here."

Aster whined sympathetically and licked his cheek.

Berlitz and Blackie both trotted into the room as well, the latter's brown eyes sad as she surveyed him silently. Berlitz barked softly and nosed him hopefully, as though asking that perhaps Prussia could get up of the floor and play with him.

Prussia ignored the dog and started as his phone rang suddenly, shattering the illusion of peaceful silence that he had created for himself. For a minute he listened to the familiar sound of old national anthem resonate throughout his bedroom before he finally answered it grumpily.

"Hallo?"

"Bruder? Can you come to the old meeting building in Berlin? You know... the one from when it was _your _capital." Germany asked, choosing his words carefully.

"Why?" Prussia questioned slowly. He could not help but be wary of his brother, not to mention betrayed: not even _he _had wished him a happy birthday today, or even acknowledged it.

"Just come! It's an emergency... Italy needs help and asked specifically for you!" Germany cried with a sudden inspiration. He knew how fond Prussia was of the playfully clueless Italian.

"Yeah, sure. It's not like I had anything planned today anyways." Prussia shrugged, not bothering to try to mask the bitterness in his voice. On his end, Germany winced but gave a thumbs up to the rest of the room.

Prussia cleaned himself up, changing out of his pajamas into a pair of jeans and a plain v-neck tee. He ran a quick comb through his snow white hair and splashed water over his face. Pulling on his black leather jacket, he left the house with Gilbird on his shoulder and the dogs trotting at his heels.

* * *

Prussia arrived at the meeting building after only about half an hour, having alternated between jogging and all-out sprinting to get there. The dogs had long since stopped following him and had gone back home to sleep. He stopped and gazed solemnly up at the abandoned building. It was falling down, but that was only to be expected of a building he had stopped using in the early 1900s.

Composing himself, he opened the door and stepped inside.

It was dark and dingy and dust coated the threadbare carpet as he moved slowly down the hallway to the main meeting room at the end. Why Germany was _here_, of all places, he would never know. Best to just confront him and find out, he decided as he pushed open the door.

* * *

Germany had arranged a surprise for his elder brother, knowing full well that he was depressed but not being resist the need to tease him a bit. So, he had planned an elaborate surprise party for him. All of the former nation's friends were here: France, Spain, America, England, Canada, Italy, Romano, Japan, Hungary, and so on. He had even managed to convince Austria to come! A couple of countries he hadn't to expected to see were here as well, like Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Poland, Lithuania, and China, but that was fine. The more countries that showed up the better.

Much to Germany's chagrin, Russia had also showed up. He suspected that the large nation's overall intention was to antagonize his brother, but he hadn't been able to get him to leave and thus had let him be.

Glancing at his watch, he realized that Prussia would be arriving at any minute, so Germany gave the order for the party-goers to hide themselves and ducked behind a desk pushed into the corner, for the sole purpose of, as far as he could see, getting it out of the way.

The door opened, his brother's pale face illuminated by the feeble light from the hallway. His snowy white seemed to glow as he stepped inside the dark room, blood red eyes surveying his surroundings suspiciously.

"Bruder?" He called. After a long moment of silence, he gave a snort of disgust, to which Gilbird gave a soft _piyo~ _as in agreement.

Just as he turned around to leave again, the hidden countries jumped out from their hiding places, screaming "_HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". _Led by Germany, who wore an uncharacteristic grin on his face, the countries swarmed the shocked albino, all smirking and laughing and smiling broadly at the look on his face.

Then Prussia got pissed. "You tricked me!" He accused, glaring at Germany.

"You seemed so morose and resentful... I had to do something to help. I had to prove that you _do _have friends and family that love you." Germany said quietly.

Prussia looked around at all the smiling countries, his friends, and finally, gradually he gave a small smile of his own. He leaned forward and engulfed Germany in a tight hug. Here, surrounded by the people he cared about, the people who cared about him, he was happy. He wasn't worthless, he wasn't useless. He was _loved_.

"I love you, bruder." he whispered.

Germany paused, before letting down his guard finally saying it...

"I love you too, bruder."


End file.
